Debate

Question 1

What is our debate?

Answer 1

The reliability of eyewitness testimony

Question 2

What is an EWT?

Answer 2

EWT- when a person whitnesses a legally important event and later must recall this to the court, recounting all details of the whitnesed event

Question 3

Why is this a debate?

Answer 3

EWT can be very unreliable due to errors and biases.
If they are inaccurate, this can ultimately have a serious impact on somebody’s life

Question 4

Why is this a debate case study- Laszlo Virag 1969?

Answer 4

LV was convicted of theft, despite his alibi along with evidence he was convicted because of an EWT
-Whilst he was serving his sentence, someone else was convicted of this theft and LV was founded
-Lord Devlin investigated this and he recommended in 1976, ‘the trial be required by the judge be required to instruct the jury that is not safe to convict on a single ewt alone, expect when there’s uncollaborative evidence’
-However this didn’t ever become a law

Question 5

What is our debate themes?

Answer 5

-Child witness are reliable
-Crimes are emotive experiences
-The prevalence of exonerations due to EWT

Question 6

Evidence for- child witnesses are reliable, who are our evidence?

Answer 6

-Davis et al (textbook)
-Ben Cortill a lecturer in psychology, Clemonson Uni
-Anastasia and Rhodes 2006

Question 7

Evidence for- child witnesses are reliable- Davis et al?

Answer 7

Children between ages of 6-7, 10-11 are fairly accurate as they don’t deliberately make things up or lie in a testimony

Question 8

Evidence for- child witnesses are reliable- Ben Cortill

Answer 8

Children as young as 6 can be just as accurate as adults when being present with a line of preparators usually scoring accuracy rates of 60%
-Also less likely to make interpretations of an event influenced by assumptions, previous experience or stereotypes than grown ups as they are more likely to make up excuses and pretend something didn’t happen
Adults more likely to misremember that a nonviolent

Question 9

Evidence for- child witnesses are reliable, Anastasia and Rhodes 2006?

Answer 9

Most age groups are more accurate when recognising an offender from their own age groups
Meaning if there was a child offender, they would be more accurate in finding the perpetrator

Question 10

Evidence for- child witnesses are reliable, SEEW paragraph?

Answer 10

S- One reason for ewt is that child witnesses can be more reliable
E- One example is
Davis et al- Children between ages of 6-7, 10-11 are fairly accurate as they don’t deliberately make things up or lie in a testimony
Anastasia & Rhodes- age groups more likely to pick out an offender from age groups
Ben Cortill- Child picking out perpetrator 60% accurate as wont make up excuse
E- explain why this can be good during EWT
W- One implication is that we can put children under immense pressure, causing bad emotional damage, therefore causing bad mental health so strain on the economy as might not be able to go to work or even have a strain on the NHS

Question 11

Arguments against- Child witnesses aren’t reliable, who are our evidence?

Answer 11

-International association of scientists and research
-Pozzulo and Lindsay 1998 (text book)

Question 12

Arguments against- Child witnesses aren’t reliable- IASR?

Answer 12

Although its said children are 60% accurate in who they choose, they can overlook may details
By asking questions like was he tall can can be bad as child may respond to questions they don’t know the answer to cause inaccuracy
-Children more likely than adults to chose incorrectly when presented with a line up that excludes the preparator
-Children may feel under pressure to choose and may be less aware of potential repercussion of false identification

Question 13

Arguments against- Child witnesses aren’t reliable, Pozzulo and Lindsay 1998?

Answer 13

Tested over 2000 participants, researchers found children under the age of 5 were less likely than older children than adults to make correct identifications when the target is present
No different to 5-13 with adults in target present condition, but were more likely to make the wrong choice in targets absent conditions could be due to child’s sensitivity of actions they feel that they can’t say no

Question 14

Arguments against- Child witnesses aren’t reliable, SEEW paragraph?

Answer 14

S- One reason they aren’t reliable
E-IASR, children put under pressure to choose the perpetrator so they respond to questions they dont have the answer to, they ultimately aren’t aware the repercussions of false identification
Textbook Poltuza and Lindsay, out of 5-13 yr olds the older you get the more accurate identification is, may make wrong choice as feel that they cant say no
E- Explain why this goes against our debate
W- Implication of economic and social, if children are our only EWT then if we don’t use them we could cause extra cost of compensation if we jail the wrong person, knock on effect to economy and danger to society as they aren’t catching the right perpetrator

Question 15

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, who are our examples?

Answer 15

Cahill and mcgaug 1995
Lavine and Edelstine 2009
Sharot and Phelps 2004

Question 16

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, textbook Cahill and McGaugh 1995?

Answer 16

If we experience an emotionally shocking event it will hold significance in our minds, particularly accurate, long lasting memory’s. Evidence that hormone associated with emotion is adrenaline which may enhance storage of memory suggesting emotion leads to more memory

Question 17

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, Sharot and Phelps 2004?

Answer 17

Particular memory for neutral stimuli such as neutral words decreased overture and memory with arousing stimuli remained the same/improved

Question 18

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, Levine and Edelstein 2009?

Answer 18

Better memory for emotionally related events and stimuli compared to neutral events with those in negative condition providing better memory recall then those in positive condition

Question 19

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, SEEW paragraph?

Answer 19

S- One reason eyewitness testimony’s may be better
E- Cahill and McGaug 1995 if we experience an emotionally shocking event it will hold significance in our minds. Evidence that hormone associated with emotion is adrenaline which may enhance storage of memory suggesting emotion leads to more memory
Sharot and Phelps 2004 Particular memory for neutral stimuli such as neutral words decreased overture and memory with arousing stimuli remained the same/improved
E- Implication is the impact of eye witness if not trusted to give testimony, may feel traumatised from the crime and to not allow there for provide enough evidence to get just detrimental on mental health

Question 20

Argument against- crimes are emotive experiences, who is our evidence?

Answer 20

Freud
Yerkes Dodson Law Organisation

Question 21

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, Freud?

Answer 21

Unreliable as crime witness are unexpected and emotionally traumatizing
Extremely painful memories forced into the unconscious minds, process is repression in the ego defence mechanism. Nowadays psychologists may call this motivated forgetting buy in either form perhaps eyewitnesses’ aren’t reliable due to trauma

Question 22

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, Yerkes Dodson Law Organisation?

Answer 22

Increased arousal can improve memory recall although only occurs to a certain optimum point beyond the performance decreases. So highest emotions can decrease memory recall, reconstructed memory altered by feelings of anxiety resulting in inaccurate memory by etw

Question 23

Argument for- crimes are emotive experiences, see paragraph?

Answer 23

S- one reason EWT are bad is because crimes are emotive experiences
E- Freud- Unreliable as crime witness are unexpected and emotionally traumatizing
Extremely painful memories forced into the unconscious minds, process is repression in the ego defence mechanism
Yerke Dodson Law Organisation
Increased arousal can improve memory recall although only occurs to a certain optimum point beyond the performance decreases. So highest emotions can decrease memory recall, reconstructed memory altered by feelings of anxiety resulting in inaccurate memory by etw
E- Ethical implication due to amount of moral responsibility that is placed on individuals given an EWT
A single EWT can lead to conviction
Unethical as too much pressure on individual as relying on memory which may be unreliable conviction on the wrong person

Question 24

Argument for- the prevalence of exoneration due to EWT? Example

Answer 24

The innocents projects
The national institute of justice

Question 25

Argument for- the prevalence of exoneration due to EWT, the innocents projects and the national institute of justices?

Answer 25

Guidelines for law enforcement to ensure EWT wouldn’t be pressured, unconsciously encourage or persuade by giving false statements
-NIJ created a guidebook for law enforcement officials based on task forced work was published in 1999, the guideline put the correct way to interview and interact with EW and provide law enforcement officials with strategy is to collect the most accurate info
-Backed by comprehensive peer reviewed research by reforms
-Adopting policy’s of blind administrates where the office adminters unaware of perception, confidence level signature
Can be reliable if procedure is followed

Question 26

Argument for- the prevalence of exoneration due to EWT, SEEW para?

Answer 26

S- The last reason to say that EWT are useful is the innocence project
E- Guidelines for law enforcement to ensure EWT wouldn’t be pressured, unconsciously encourage or persuade by giving false statements
-NIJ created a guidebook for law enforcement officials based on task forced work was published in 1999, the guideline put the correct way to interview and interact with EW and provide law enforcement officials with strategy is to collect the most accurate info
-Backed by comprehensive peer reviewed research by reforms
-Adopting policy’s of blind administrates where the office adminters unaware of perception, confidence level
E- Even after guidelines it may still be likely due to memory reconstruction so not fully effective economic problems still having to go to court is a rise on the economy £17,000 and £17,500 on potential unreliable evidence

Question 27

Argument against- the prevalence of exoneration due to EWT, what are our example?

Answer 27

The innocence project

Question 28

Argument against- the prevalence of exoneration due to EWT, the innocence project?

Answer 28

In January 2020- 375 convictions have been overturned due to DNA exonerations since 1989
-Mistakes in EWT played a role in 61% of wrong convictions
-In 66 of wrongful convictions by DNA testing due to racial EW identifications

Question 29

Argument against- the prevalence of exoneration due to EWT, SEEW para?

Answer 29

S- The EWT are bad because..
E- In January 2020- 375 convictions have been overturned due to DNA exonerations since 1989
-Mistakes in EWT played a role in 61% of wrong convictions
-In 66 of wrongful convictions by DNA testing due to racial EW identifications
E- If we don’t use EWT social implications is that perpetrate fee causing more damage to mental health
If we don’t use EWT could wrongly convict someone meaning compensation, strain on the economy

Question 30

What’s our conclusion?

Answer 30

Overall, the evidence points towards the fact that EWT are ultimately an unreliable source to use within the courts